Everyone can find something to like about the Beatles, says Victoria-based director Jacob Richmond, who is directing Spring Beatles, a five-person Beatles tribute show being livestreamed by Blue Bridge Repertory Theatre, starting today.
Richmond’s second stab at online directing is still an experiment, he says, because of the many different artistic mediums this show demands.
“We want to try to capture the idea of a live concert—it is live—but usually with a play it’s totally scripted,” says Richmond. “Whereas, we want to allow the musicians the ability to just be great, cool musicians and riff. But unlike a play or a musical, where everything is in a book… it’s a bit looser.”
In order for the sound to be in sync over Zoom, the sound engineer has to mix about two seconds ahead of what the audience is actually hearing, says Richmond, because Zoom lags a couple of seconds behind what is actually being played.
“He will be mixing it on Zoom after we’ve done the live mixing to make sure that you can crank your speakers and it will sound beautiful,” says Richmond. “You have to do the two-second delay bit where you have to listen to that and not listen to the band on stage. It’s super weird.”
Richmond says that many art forms—theatre, film, music—have to be paid attention to simultaneously in the world of Zoom productions; he says that it means staying out of the way and essentially learning how to be a film director.
“It’s kind of like live mixing,” he says.
Richmond says the musicians doing the show—Brooke Maxwell, Chris Frye, Richard Moody, Peter Dowse, and Damian Graham—have the freedom to put their own takes on the Beatles’ music. Lots of the songs they will play are lesser-known numbers, but there will be a bit of everything: psychedelic, rock, and some of the more well-known songs.
“We’re giving them a lot of leg room to allow themselves to be the musicians they are and not feel like they’re a cruise-ship band,” says Richmond. “The soul of a live concert with really great musicians is allowing them to kind of be in the moment.”
Richmond points out that even though the show is done over Zoom, it still is a live show.
“There will be a different vibe to almost every single song every single night,” he says. “They’ll do a bluegrassy version of a rock song, and then just straight-ahead rock classics like ‘Back In The U.S.S.R.’ It’s electric, with drums, foot stomping, and shouting.”
Richmond says that working with these musicians has been like building new neural pathways in his brain as a theatre director, especially since the lights, sound, and transitions from song to song have been figured out and what remains between now and opening night is mostly technical details.
“Now we just are going to be looking at screens,” he says, “which is funny, because in theatre, you’re not allowed to look at your iPhone while you’re on stage.”
Spring Beatles
Tuesday, April 27 to Sunday, May 2
$25, online
bluebridgetheatre.ca